The objectives of the study were (i) to find out if
creativity was the general scheme of reality, (ii) to find out if creativity
was linked with different concepts of this universe, that is, with becoming,
cosmic evolution, consciousness, organic evolution and teleology, (iii) to
trace the historical background of creativity both in Indian and in Western
thought, with special reference to the Vedas, Upanishads, Plato and Plotinus,
(iv) to locate the concept of creativity in Bergson's ideas, (v) to investigate
how Whitehead contributed to the concept of creativity, (vi) to identify the
concept of creativity in the ideas of Sri Aurobindo, and (vii) to analyse
various theories of creative evolution developed by S. Alexander, L. Morgan and
James Ward.

The methodology adopted was philosophical,
historical and comparative. The study was philosophical in the sense that ideas
of various personalities were organized, critically analysed and evaluated. It
was historical because the development of the concept of creativity from
various sources had been traced. Further, it was comparative as commonness
between the ideas and theories of various persons on the concept of creativity
had been identified and critically evaluated. Content analysis was used both as
a tool and technique to analyse the educational ideas of Tagore and Whitehead.
Content analysis consisted of documentary analysis and thematic analysis. For
content analysis, primary as well as secondary sources were used. The material
was also examined to find out its suitability for the proposed research by way
of internal and external criticism.

Some of the findings of the study were:

1. Creativity constitutes the very basis of reality.

2. Creativity has been conceived by various thinkers
as an exercise of nonfigurative powers of the whole psyche involving all its
substance, the play of its entire energy. The creative action is more than
cerebral, more than visceral, involving more than mind and heart, intellect and
emotions. It augments the structure of human vision by introducing some new,
vital configuration of ideas or from among those available to organize
experience.

3. Creativity was the power to evolve a pattern that
remained omnipotent insofar as it touched the details of actualization.
Creativity was a widely recognized ideal for every human being.

4. Both east and west emphasized that what was
creative about spiritual experience was not its psychological accompaniments
but the inward change which manifested itself in the fruits of the
spirit-peace, JOY and loving suffering. A new type of life emerged with a
higher correspondence between one's self and the ultimate sources of reality.
New qualities of mind and character were called forth out of ordinary men and
women, qualities which manifested the Divine in them.

5. Bergson's concepts elan-vital had led to a
revolutionary syndical that would restore a purified social life by insisting
that social change in any class of people could be achieved only by the force
of their own associations, through means that would evolve so as to suit their
particular needs. In the theory of science, he had inspired a new `positivism'
that criticized scientific data in a vigorous and original way and showed how
much arbitrariness there was in our methods of measurement of magnitudes.
6.
Whitehead introduced an omnibus principle called creativity, which was a sort
of universal blanket to cover all logical branches that his philosophy had
created. Whitehead's emphasis on the organic character of natural systems and
his attempt to bring physics and biology closer together had a good deal in
common with the Gestalt approach to mind and nature.

7. Some emergentists advocated the theory of levels
according to which evolution proceeded by the method of creative synthesis and
life and mind came of a certain kind of organization of non-living elements.
These new qualities could not be inferred by merely adding together the
qualities of elements taking part in the organization. At each new level of
reality, new powers, new capacities and new qualities emerged. Life appeared at
one of these levels. Along with it emerged a series of new qualities such as
growth, assimilation, irritability, adaptability and reproduction. Mind was the
result of still more highly complex organizations. This was called creative
evolution or emergent evolution whose pioneers were Bergson, Alexander, Morgan
and Ward.

8. Sri Aurobindo's evolution admitted both mechanism
and emergence, determinism and freedom. The creator was the supermind and it
was a power of Sachchidananda. Hence the process of evolution was free,
self-imposed and self-determined by Sachchidananda. The world was not the
result of blind chance but a self-manifestation of the ultimate. Nature's
processes appeared to us to be mechanical merely because the purpose was under
disguise. Nothing was created from outside.

9. Creativity constitutes the very basis or
foundation of reality. It was the creative purpose which steered and guided
cosmic evolution and natural evolution. Creativity in human civilization was
the expression of creation, which was at the root of nature and reality.

10. Man's future is in the hands of two creative
agencies, his biological evolution and his psychological evolution. Genetic and
natural environmental forces continued to influence the development of man.
Psychological control dominates the direction of human evolution. Man's
personal potential is biological, but he is freely And creatively designed. His
future depended upon his understanding and attitudes towards reality. Man would
be creative and free in projecting his future only if he could at one and the
same time realistically immerse himself in the history of his age and culture,
discover trans-historical meaning and affirm divine communication.

11. Bergson,
Sri Aurobindo and Whitehead are quite close to each other as far as the process
of creativity is concerned.

Now
that I've completed preparatory research essays on Schelling (The
Re-Emergence of Schelling: Philosophy in a Time of Emergency) and
Whitehead (Physics of the World-Soul: The Relevance of A.N. Whitehead’s
Philosophy of Organism to Contemporary Scientific Cosmology), it’s finally time
to start zeroing in on my dissertation thesis. The title I’m proposing for now
is Imagination Between...

Sri Aurobindo,
the hope of man - Page 309 - Keshavmurti -
1969 - In the beginning Sri Aurobindo did not concern himself much
with the war though he knew that poor leadership in England and France was at
least partly responsible for Hitler's truculent and bellicose ...

Collected
Works: Words of the mother - Page 127 - Mother -
1980 - 1 April 1946 A Declaration Sri Aurobindo withdrew from politics; and, in
his Ashram, a most important rule is that one must abstain from all politics —
not because Sri Aurobindo did not concern himself with the happenings of the
world, but because politics, as it is practised, is a low and ugly thing,
wholly dominated by falsehood, deceit, injustice, misuse of power and violence; ...

Sri Aurobindo's treatment of Hindu myth -
Page 32 - Jan
Feys - 1983 - But for these queries Aurobindo might not have spoken of it at all. His general
approach to myth also holds good here. Thus, e.g., Radha under the spell of Krishna symbolises "the soul, the psychic, hearing
the call of the Divine". Aurobindo's ...

Integral
Psychology - Page 84 - Ken
Wilber - 2000 - Preview
Maslow. Abraham Maslow (1908–1970) is well known enough that I will only make a
few passing comments. Like all truly great integral thinkers— from Aurobindo to Gebser to Whitehead to Baldwin
to Habermas—he was a developmentalist.